2023-05-04 14:01:50
Time.news – Identified the ponte which forms the background to the portrait of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. According to the story of the Guardian, the Italian historian Silvano Vinceti said he had no doubts that “the Romito di Laterina bridge in the province of Arezzo” is exactly what Leonardo painted in the coveted rural landscape behind the enigmatic female Mona Lisa character in the picture.
End of a mystery?
Leonardo portrayed the Mona Lisa in Florence at the beginning of the 16th century, but the various hypotheses advanced in the past had affirmed that the bridge could be that of Buriano, near Laterina, but perhaps also Ponte Bobbio near Piacenza, reports the English newspaper.
But in using historical documents and images of drones and making comparisons between the painting and photographs of the area, Professor Vinceti has instead identified the object of contention in the “Etruscan-Roman Romito bridge”.
However, there would be a precise detail that would have led the historian to ascertain its truth, he himself explained to journalists of the Foreign Press Association in Rome, and it concerns the number of arches: “The bridge in Leonardo’s painting had four arches, just like the Romito, while Ponte Buriano has six arches and Ponte Bobbio even more than six”. Of the Romito, which crossed the Arno, only an arch remains and the foundations of the bridge are on the opposite bank.
The Guardian writes that from the documents of the Medici family found in the State Archives of Florence “it appears that between 1501 and 1503 the bridge was ‘a very busy and functioning bridge'”. According to Vinceti’s account, in that period Leonardo was in the Val d’Arno area, first in the service of Cesare Borgia, cardinal of the most famous noble family of Renaissance Italy, and then of Piero Soderini, statesman of the Republic from Florence. The bridge itself was a shortcut to reduce the distances between Arezzo, Fiesole and Florence by several hours.
Vinceti is certain: “The characteristic shape of the Arno along that stretch of land corresponds to what Leonardo depicted in the landscape to the left of the noblewoman portrayed in the famous painting” of the Mona Lisa.
Equally clear Simona Neri, mayor of Laterina: “We must try to protect what remains of the bridge, what will require funding”. Certainly now there will be no lack of rivalry and dispute with nearby Buriano, where a poster of the Monna Lisa which attributes the originality of the bridge stands right next to the town.
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